Topic 23: theory of interpreter’s note-taking

23.1. General Ideas

The taking of notes is the crucial point in the technique of consecutive interpretation. The quality of the work done depends on it far more than on any other factor for which training may lead to an improvement. The way in which the notes are taken may even remedy various deficiencies in the interpreter. The importance of technical preparation in this connection can therefore never he overestimated.

Generally speaking, the object of the notes is to supplement memory efficiently. The interpreter who could keep a full and accurate remembrance of all that was said – and there has been at least one such case – would have no need of them. Notes are therefore essentially individual in character; some people have a faculty for remembering details, and others for recollecting the sequence of ideas. A beginner should therefore no more borrow a system of notes which a more experienced interpreter has found successful than a patient should use a prescription prepared for somebody else. Only practical experience and repeated experiments can show the interpreter what type of notes would be the best suited for him. After this general warning, it is possible, however, to give a few hints.

The interpreter should always start taking notes as soon as the speech begins. What looked like “just a few words” may unexpectedly turn out to be an endless discourse, sometimes even though the speaker himself never expected it. An interpreter who is taken unawares in such a case may have to face considerable difficulties.

Some interpreters prefer to take running notes as the speech goes on, not waiting for an idea to have been fully expressed; others prefer to lag behind so that their notes may be more logical. Everyone should find out from his own practice what system suits him best, but the first of the two offers greater security to beginners.

23.2. Type of Notes

The notes needed by the interpreter are of a totally different type from those made by the student during lectures, by the précis-writer or verbatim-reporter during meetings. They are exclusively intended for immediate use, to serve as mile-stones in a speech which is still quite fresh to the mind. It is quite unnecessary that the interpreter should still be able to read them a year, or a month, or a day, or even an hour after he has finished his translation. For this reason, it is highly inadvisable that an interpreter should undertake also to write the minutes of a meeting, as he is frequently asked to do in a small organization. Should he agree to do it, either both tasks would be badly performed, or one of them would be sacrificed to the other.

23.3. Logical Analysis

As far as possible, the interpreter should proceed to a logical analysis of the speech while it is being made, and take his notes accordingly. This implies that divisions and subdivisions which are seldom apparent, except with the best of speakers, should be brought out and duly classified. Since capital letters, underlining, the surrounding of words with a square or a circle, are generally used for other purposes for which they can hardly be replaced, the most convenient thing is to take highly synoptic notes, and in particular to leave margins of varying widths. This method proves more valuable still when the interpreter is informed only at the end of the speech that he should make his interpretation much shorter than had been expected – which very frequently happens at the end of a meeting, when the audience is tired. Many interpreters also draw a horizontal line across the page to separate various sections of the same speech.

Such a logical analysis is often strenuous, and careful preparation is a necessity. The aspirant interpreter may go through it by himself by taking a few pages of a book, possibly philosophical, where the ideas are presented with very little method, and practice transcribing them into clear and logical interpreter’s notes. With sufficient practice, this comes to be done almost automatically.